VA-11 HALL-A or Valhalla is one of those rare games that comes around once every few years or so that sucks in its audience so deeply that you may never want to leave; a game that makes you fall in love with every single one of its characters, not just the protagonist but all the side characters as well. You’ll fall in love with the dystopian metropolis that is known as “Glitch City” and you will never forget the story of VA-11 HALL-A for years to come.

Developed by Sukeban Games VA-11 HALL-A is a visual novel with a unique anime and cyberpunk art style that brings its Blade Runner inspired world to life, and creates this amazing atmosphere that even most sci-fi movies tend to lack. VA-11 HALL-A focuses on a bartender named Jill who is just living her life mixing drinks for a unique cast of colorful characters who each have their own story to tell.

Dorothy is an upbeat and brutally honest Lilim, a robot of sorts that derive from an early AI known as Lilith. Dorothy is a sex worker and definitely does not shy away from her work, in fact, she loves what she does. It’s extremely interesting to see such a taboo job depicted in any form of media let alone video games. Another notable character is Jill’s boss Dana. Dana has lived such an exciting yet at times dangerous life as she has a cybernetic arm. Dana always wants what’s best for her employees and when they go through hard times she makes sure they are taken care of above all else.

The population of Glitch City is full of people who enchanted themselves with cybernetics in all different manner of ways. This includes dogs who in this world talk and run full companies. VA-11 HALL-A is full of charm and wit, the writing never dives into the melodramatic and feels real; so real in fact that I have started finding characters that speak like people I know personally.

VA-11 HALL-A does a few notable things that make it utterly captivating. In particular its’ diversity as well as its’ way of addressing taboo subjects such and prostitution, different forms of BDSM, police brutality, and even corruption play huge roles in VA-11 HALL-A’s themes. It is refreshing to see themes represented that people are too afraid to mention in this modern-day and age. VA-11 HALL-A also includes some great diversity and great representation within the LGBTQ+ communities. Characters struggle with coming out of the closest, and there are even openly gay characters like our protagonist Jill. Every race, fictional or otherwise is represented and represented well.

As for the gameplay side of things, you will mostly be mixing drinks. Each customer will ask for something, sometimes specific drinks and at other times you will be left to guess on what they would like. Depending on what you give them, your story can change and give you a variety of endings. On the right side of the screen, you will see ingredients to mix drinks with. You don’t have to remember what to mix as you will always have your bartender manual handy just in case.

Before each shift you will be tasked with creating the days playlist of 12 songs. Though the music is great and songs range from hardcore jamming to a more sombre feeling, this can create a feeling of disconnect when you have an upbeat jazzy song while an NPC is just spilling out a depression tale of their life to you. Before each shift you can explore Jill’s bedroom and read the days news and gossip online. Jill can also get distracted at work if you’re not paying attention, which can cause her to forget drink orders and lose your tip money.

VA-11 HALL-A is a rare game that is meant for a certain target audience but should be experienced by everyone. It is a game that could (and should be) studied for its writing as well as the way it doesn’t forcefully include diversity for the sake of diversity. It deals with negative topics in such a smart and nonchalant way that it is hard not to mention. VA-11 HALL-A is an experience that is worthy of your time, money and multiple playthroughs in order to get every ending. I have every intention to play it two or three more times and get the platinum trophy.

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VA-11 HALL-A

$14.99 USD

10

Score

10.0/10

Pros

• Interesting Characters
• Diverse world
• Smartly written
• Well composed music
• Replayable